Resilient heel



E. J. EMERY.

v RESILIENT HEEL. APPLICATION FILED MAY 21, 1920.

1,3903%. PatentedSept. 13,1921.

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FAT E OFFICE.

ELIAS J. EMERY, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

RESILIEN '1 HEEL.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ELIAs J. EMERY. a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Resilient Heels, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to resilient heels made of rubber, rubber compound or a rubber sustitute of the type now in familiar use.

A principal object of the present invention is to improve the gripping efliciency of the heel and to increase the evenness of wear of the tread surface of the heel underprolonged use.

In my Letters Patent No. 1,165,235, dated Dec. 21, 1915, No. 1,202,820, dated October 31, 1916, and No. 1,232,518. dated July 10,

1917, I have described and claimed a resilient heel having Wear taking members or plugs adapted to take the first impact or tread of the wearer. These elastic treads then compressing to lower the weight of the wearer upon the heel proper. In my said. patents the additional elements are attachable and detachable, constituting. the removable and insertible additions to the heel proper.

.The present invention secure'the advantage of operation of the patented structures in a different way, by providing an integral resilient heel with projecting resilient plugs adapted first to engage the ground upon the tread of the wearer and then to retire to conformity with the tread surface of the body portion of the heel. The wear of first con-. tact or scraping wear (which I have determined to be the destructive factor of wear, acting to deform the tread or lower the surface of the heel away from parallelism with its attachment or upper surface) is taken by the resilient or retiring members of the present structure in the same manner as it is taken by the separable plugs of my said prior patents. But I have provided in my present invention a superior construction permitting a better yielding function for the plugs or first-contact surfaces which. while retaining the advantage of conducing to even wear of the heel proper and enabling every step of the wearer to be taken upon a flat-bottomed heel surface symmetrically resilient throughout its width, still permits the heel to be formed as an integral'structure-at one molding operation. Advantages of the new structure include greatly pro- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 13, 1921.

1920. Serial No. 388,057.

longed wear of the heel without having to rely upon the wearers attention or initiative to replace any part. These advantages more than over-balance in practical benefit the advantages flowing from being able to renew the plugs or first contact surfaces without renewing the remainder of the heel.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating a specific instance of structures corresponding to the invention,-

gigure 1 is an under plan view of a heel; an

Fig. 2 is a transverse section on the line 22 of Fig. 1. i

The body 1 of the heel may be molded with the usual upstanding rand or edge 2 to enable better compression at the edge of the cemented joint made between the upper surface 3 of the heel and the leather portion. of the shoe to which it is attached. Distributed in the substance of the heel, preferably at at least three points as illustrated, I provide recesses 4, preferably molded when the heel is formed, surrounding and partially isolating the upper surface of integral plugs-5.

When the plugs 5 .are circular, such as those shown in Fig. 2, the recesses 4 are circular depressions, and when the plugs are of other form, as illustrated for instance at 5, the depression 4 is of suitable closed figure to surround and define the plugs 5; \Vhatever the form of-the plugs 5 their upper or internal surfaces stop short of the plane of the surface 3 and provide a space 6 between the top of the plug 5 and the attachment surface of the heel.

On the lower of" tread surface 7 of the heel the plugs 5 are isolated from the neighboring surface by surrounding preferably molded, recesses 8 conforming to and opposite the corresponding recesses 4. The lower surfaces 9 of the plugs 5 project below the tread surface 7 of the heel a substantial distance, as shown about the same distance as the depth of the recesses 6 above the plugs 5.

One consequence of the structure illustrated is to provide plugs 5 or 5 virtually suspended in openings through the substance of the heel and supported in the corresponding recesses 4 and 8 by integral resilient tension bridges 10. Vhen treading pressure is ap lied to the lower end of the plugs 5 the bridges 10 yield by their tensile elasticity to permit the plugs 5 to be driven upward into the recesses. 6, but maintaining an increasing force tending to restore the plugs 5 to their original position shown in Fig. 2. This action is aided toward the end of the upward stroke of the plugs 5 permitted by the recesses 6 by the compression of the entrapped air in the recesses 6.

While I have referred to the resilient support of the plugs 5 as an eifect of tensile stress on the bridges 10, it will of course be understood that the surrounding portions of the heel 1 from which the bridges 10 spring and the adjacent portions of the plugs 5 into which the inner edges of the bridges 10 merge each partake of the resilient distortion under tensile stress and return to their original form relied upon to permit the plugs 5 to yield and to cause the plugs 5. to return to their original position upon the removal of the pressure.

In use the plugs 5 or 5 secure the desired effect of taking the scraping Wear of first contact of the heel, and of letting down the heel during the middle and final part of the wearers step to a square bottoming seat on the surface 7. When the projecting portions of the plugs 5 are worn out, the heel 'is neither better nor worse than the usual commercial rubber heel and will wear much as such heels now wear. This does not occur, however, until after a period of wear suflicient in the usual case with the present type of heel to cause their discard.

What I claim is;

1. A resilient heel molded in one integral piece of a plastic substance, having tensile resilience, and having therein a partially separated body constituting a plug having ends normally displaced from coincidence with the tread and attachment surfaces of the heel respectively, and movable into line with the body of the heel, and connected to the body of the heel by an integral resilient bridge constituting a support adapted to stretch and resiliently return, to permit motion and return of the plu 2. A resilient heel having therein, and partially separated therefrom, an integral plug normally projecting beneath the tread surface of the\heel and of the same substance as the heel, and a connecting bridge between the substance of the heel proper and thesubstance of the plug adapted to be stretched under pressure upon the plug and to return the plug to its normal projecting position upon cessation of pressure by the tensile resilience of the bridge.

3. A rubber heel having therein an upper surface comprising a depression partially isolating a part of the substance of the heel within the margins of the depression, having corresponding depressions on the lower surface defining a projecting integral plug of the material of the heel, and adapted thereby to support the plug so formed for resilient deformation into alinement with the tread surface of the heel upon treading pressure, such deformation occasioning the tensile stretching of the integral juncture between the plug and the body of the heel.

Signed by me at Boston, Massachusetts,

this 17th day of'May, 1920.

ELIAS J. EMERY. 

